The Worst Colored Pencil Review Ever | Art Track
The Worst Colored Pencil Review Ever | Art Track
This is by far the worst colored pencil review I have ever done and I can assure you 100% that I really tried to make this review work. In my effort to show this product in a good light, I stopped and thought that purchasing and using a set of colored pencils is not supposed to be a difficult process. Me sitting using lots of different papers, working really hard with the product only to product a have decent piece of art is not the purpose of my reviews, the purpose of my reviews is to test and demonstrate a product and tell you guys my findings and experience with said product.
I really struggled with this review mentally speaking, I wanted to do what was best by you guys, the viewers or in this case, the readers but at the same time I didn’t want to disrespect the company. For me conducting reviews has never been about slagging off a company should I not enjoy their product; for me this was not the right way to go about things. Instead, simply delivering my findings and experiences to you guys has always been my priority and never dressing up my findings but simply delivering the truth. After this point the rest is up to you as to whether or not you feel said product would fit into your artistic endeavours.
Characteristics Of Art Track 160 Set Of Colored Pencils
I purchased this set of 160 colored pencils about a year ago, round about the same time I purchased the Nyoni, Phoenixcolor, Brutfuner etc from AliExpress. I seen the images of the Art Track 160 set of colored pencils and loved the packaging, I thought it looked different, quite unique and at the time, simply something interesting to review.
As you can see from the images, the packaging is unique and interesting, but only a reviewer can purchase a set of colored pencils based on the type of packaging being used, nobody outside a reviewer, should ever look at a set of colored pencils and buy them on that bases.
I know this is going to sound absolutely ridiculous but the color of the set is actually really attractive and pleasing to the eye. On the front of the box in gold print is “160 Colored Pencils” and below that in smaller print is a message of who the pencils are aimed at “Colouring Pencils For Kids, Students and Artists”. I take huge issue with this statement and I believe with good reason.
For those people new to colored pencils, they only really have what is on the box to go by and I know there are a lot of review channels, but not everyone, when they first start out looking for a box of colored pencils, check YouTube. The first issue I take with the statement is that it covers all genre of artist, very few colored pencil sets are perfect for kids, students and artists. The most frustrating thing about the statement is that they are for Artists, this is so wrong and I do mean wrong. No colored pencil artist could purchase this set of colored pencils, create a piece of art and sell the original to a customer, in the knowledge that the customer would not return six months to a year later with a terribly faded piece of art.
I do like the simplicity of the packaging on the front and the second thing I like is that on the back of the box, the company name, address, and customer services number is printed. This is not a normal thing to be present on the more budget sets of colored pencils from China, but given them their dues, they have added this information.
To gain access to the pencils, you slide the blue section of the box up and off the lower white plinth, to see how this happens and what it looks like you can see me do this on my YouTube video review of the pencils. On removing the top section, we are presented with a printed swatch of all 160 Colored Pencils on the lower white plinth section of the box. You can also see from the image that there are numbers printed below the colors and these numbers correspond with numbers on the actual pencils.
The pencils are hexagonal in shape, holding the pencil in your hand feels very light weight and cheap, to me it feels like the wood used for the barrel is low grade and cheap. The core is approximately 2.9mm and the overall dimensions of the hexagonal barrel is 6.9mm, which is average for a budget grade pencil.
The rear of the pencil is not capped, the core is exposed and this means we can see whether or not the core of each pencil is centred. This is not a huge deal but it can be helpful to know if a core is centred or not. Along the barrel of the pencils is printed in metallic print, “Coloured Pencil” this is followed by what I think is a logo as it is also an image on the front of the box. After this the company name is also printed “Art Track”
On the opposite side of the barrel we simply have the word “Colour” printed and this is followed by a number. There is no pigment names printed on the pencil or the box, but the numbers on the box swatch are supposed to match up with the numbers on the barrel. However, as I created my own swatch, I soon discovered that this was not the case, not all of the numbers on the pencils matched the numbers on the box swatch.
The pencils are all placed in plastic trays of which there are five plastic trays in the box total. Each tray holds 32 pencils but the trays are quite flimsy, but the hold the pencils in place really firmly, but to the point that removing the pencils can be a pain.
Art Track Colored Pencil Performance
there is really no point in beating about the bush, the Art Track Colored Pencils are terrible, no matter what I did, I was unable to enjoy using them or even get results. As you can see from the images showing you the actual pencils in the 160 as opposed to just the swatch, there are a lot of good tone range within the 160 count, well, it looks that way.
The first thing I did was swatch the pencils out and I did this on Strathmore Bristol Velum Paper. The core of the pencils felt hard to me when I was sharpening them, it might sound silly, but when you review and test enough pencils over the years, when you place the core into a hand held sharpener, as you twist the pencils and the blade shave the wood, you can also see how the blade performs on the actual core. If the core is hard, even with a razor sharp blade, the core is much more brittle and so bits will break off into tiny little shards, however with a softer core, the blade refines it into a sharp point.
Creating the swatch was a not an enjoyable event, you can see from the image that the colors are bright and vibrant, but with al the swatches I create in these tests, I try to fade the color from using a light touch to a heavy hand; you can see with this swatch there is very little difference in gradient and that was due to the heavy handed nature in order to get color onto the paper.
At this point I thought that perhaps the Bristol Velum paper didn’t have enough tooth and that perhaps a more textured surface would get the best out of the Art Track Colored Pencils. I drew out my sketch and for this piece I wanted to do a botanical piece, I completed three pepper, Red, Green and Orange only this time I used Strathmore 400 Series Mixed Media paper.
The Mixed Media paper is a little bit heavier than the velum as it is designed to take light washes and of course the tooth on the paper is a little bit more textured. As you can see from the images of the artwork, I just was not able to develop darker tones, layering was useless and on the red pepper I even used black as an under layer in order to get shadow, but to look at the image you would not think black had been applied anywhere.
When I got to the green pepper I was already frustrated with the Art Track Colored Pencils and wanted to stop but I pushed on. Looking at the actual pencils, the barrel colors and tones of the green pencils, I was half looking forward to this part of the drawing, but it just was not to be. You can see from the images how bad the pencils layered and blended but by this point, as I was sharpening the pencils, the core was shattering or the wood was splintering making the entire experience horrible.
Halfway through this particular drawing I even decided to use Odourless Mineral Spirits and for those of you that have been watching my reviews for a while now, you will know that I prefer not to use Odourless Mineral Spirits. This is simply just a personal choice, I am generally not very good at using it and occasionally apply too much making a mess, but I thought that using it with the Art Track Colored Pencils would help with layering and achieving tonal value and depth, but it didn’t
It was at this point that I said enough was enough, I have so many products to review and other projects on the go, I just felt that my time could be better spent elsewhere, but at the same time it was important for me to deliver this review to you guys and allow you to make up your own mind based on my experience with the Art Track Colored Pencils.
I tested the Art Track pencils on some UART sanded paper and a pice of Pastelmat that I had, thinking that the rough texture would draw out some color, but this was just not the case. I finally applied four colors and the white to a piece of Black paper and this shows the opaqueness or translucency of the pencils.
Art Track Colored Pencil Conclusion
You will notice that I have not even bothered to add a price section to this review and that is because, if you would like to purchase this set of colored pencils to try for yourself, I don’t want to have any part in causing frustration and misery to you. I would rather if you really wanted to purchase the Art Track pencils you search for them on Amazon yourself, I would feel terrible if you purchased them via my review.
As I mentioned above at the very beginning of this review, this review is in no way meant to disrespect the company that made these pencils, in fact they also sell a set of Watercolor pencils a 72 set in exactly the same type of packaging which I obviously have no idea what they are like. My intention in reviewing a product is never to be disrespectful toward the company in anyway shape or form.
I really tried to get the best from the Art Track Colored Pencils, I tested them on various papers, various surface textures as well as using Odourless Mineral Spirits, something I never use in my artwork. I think I have said all that needs to be said about the Art Track Colored Pencils, if you would like to watch my YouTube review where there is a small clip of the artwork coming to life, all you have to do is follow the link. Thank you so very much for reading this review and for your continued support it means the world to me, thank you so much.
